I took the seat that he pulled out for me and watched him through my eyelashes as he took a bracing breath and then sat himself as well. My plate was a collection of foods he’d noted I showed enjoyment of, except for one small portion of a meat I didn’t recognize. His plate appeared to be full of steamed roots and cubed winter squashes. “What is this?” I asked, gesturing to the mystery meat with a fork from the tray.
“Deer,” he answered. “Helda brought some up from her butcher to see if you might like to try it.”
“Oh!” Not mystery meat at all then. We ate deer all the time in Faery. “That was kind of her.”
Victor nodded and began eating his vegetables. He handled his silverware with the utmost grace, and it occurred to me that he would have fit right in at a palace dinner. Just watching his hands made my neck hot again. I struggled to control my ardor and redirected my attention to our meal.
“DoVeardurnot eat meat?” I asked, eyeing his plate. He’d wrinkled his nose at the meat he’d brought me one time, but I figured maybe he just didn’t like that dish. Come to think of it, I’d never seen him eat meat of any kind.
“This one doesn’t.”
“Not at all? You don’t like the taste?” I knew a few fae that didn’t eat meat, but it was usually because they had trouble digesting it. I couldn’t imagine that would be a problem for an immortal, but there was much I still didn’t know about his people.
He gave the food on my plate a small frown and appeared to suppress a shudder. “I don’t like the concept.”
“Of… killing animals?” I guessed. That seemed odd for someone who saw so much death, but perhaps he didn’t want to add to the tally? The Queen employed multiple hunters to supply us with fresh venison, and it was a highly revered position within the courts. I tasted a bite of the deer meat, and it tasted fine to me. The sauce was a little strange, containing spices I was unused to, but certainly edible. I took a sip of tea to wash it down.
“Of eating someone’s decomposing flesh carcass,” he said crisply.
I choked on my drink, causing him to look at me in alarm. I waved him off while I coughed up my lungs into my napkin and then wheezed out, “Well, when you put it like that!” I grimaced. “It’s notdecomposing,” I disagreed in horror.
He made a sound that might have been a scoff, but I saw a spark of mischief in his eye as he raised an eyebrow. “Any flesh that’s not alive is already beginning to decompose,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Stop calling it that! It’smeat.” He was teasing me! I was disgusted but trying not to laugh again. I raised my nose in the air in an imitation of haughtiness. “And you make it sound like we eatpeople. We only eat animals.”
He poked another of his vegetables onto his fork and answered blithely, as if it were of no consequence. “And you may continue to do so.”
“But you won’t?” I asked, my own eyebrow lifting. I poked a bit of the venison and lifted it toward him in offering.
This time he did shudder, his shoulders lifting in revulsion. “Not if I can help it.”
“Does it bother you if I eat it?” I asked, lowering my fork. I didn’t want to distress him. Why had he even served it to me if it bothered him?
His gaze shot back to mine in confusion, and his eyes softened as he looked at me. “Of course not. Many populations eat meat. I just don’t want it myself.” The twinkle returned to his eye. “I will provide you with all the decomposing flesh carcasses you want.”
I gasped and hit him with my napkin, and I swear I saw the corner of his lip twitch up right before his hand snaked over the corner of the table to hold mine.
Chapter 19
Celeste
Thegarmentmadefromtiny scraps of pastel purple and white lace wasn’t what I was expecting when the tailors delivered a package late the next day.
I’d gone to bed early the night before, not able to make it long past dinner when exhaustion took hold of me again, but I’d woken to birdsong this morning, feeling pretty good.
Then I’d endured another torturous day of nothing but erotic hand holding that made me want to scream. Every touch, every lazy movement of his thumb skimming the sensitive skin between my thumb and forefinger, made my heart beat faster. I didn’t understand how he could get me so worked up with nothing but his fingers brushing along mine, but I’d never felt so repressed in all my life.
After dinner, I’d been brushing out my wings in the bedroom mirror to ready for sleep when Victor returned from taking down our dinnerware with a small package. “The tailor shop sent this for you,” he said, setting it on the desk in front of me. “Your order shouldn’t be ready yet, but maybe they had something already made. I’m going to help Helda load up her donkey for her commute home, then I’ll be back,” he explained with a pause at the door as he left again.
I smiled at the way he doted on the older woman—who had made no mention of interrupting our make out session—and returned my attention to the package. The thick brown paper tied with string was easily opened, but once I had the parchment spread out on the desk, I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. Straps of lavender-colored ribbon and purple and white lace didn’t look like any of the garments we had discussed at the shop. Strands of pearls connected in multiple places and fabric flowers decorated the lace here and there. Some kind of high fashion? Or… lingerie? I found a card tucked into the garment and opened it to reveal tiny script written in Common Tongue.
A gift. Congratulations on your new marriage! Your order will be finished shortly.
Sincerely,
Inga – Perfect Fit Tailor Services, Bhalden’s Post
My eyebrows raised as I held up the straps of ribbons and lace. I’d never owned any lingerie, but that was what this appeared to be: very, very skimpy lingerie. Inspection of the inner seams showed that it did appear to have been pre-constructed, and then specific seams were altered to adjust the size. I stripped out of my sleepwear and after a few tries figured out that several of the ribbons wrapped around my upper thighs and rump, and a second piece had ribbons that wrapped around my back and chest to hold up my breasts, along with a gauzy mesh lace that backed the fabric flowers to “cover” my nipples. Several strands of pearls draped from both the top and bottom, but the two pieces were unconnected. It was, indeed, a perfect fit. And absolutely scandalous.
